JERUSALEM: When US President Barack Obama meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, media handlers will try to convey a crosser image of the relationship than at their last encounter.
But major decisions are not expected to be taken at the meeting on Tuesday, analysts say, as each leader is walking his own domestic political tightrope.
On the agenda, according to an Israeli official, will be Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Iran`s nuclear ambitions and Gaza, where Israel has eased a four-year blockade under international pressure after an Israeli raid on an aid flotilla that killed nine Turks, one of them with US nationality.
The May 31 raid badly damaged relations between Israel and Turkey, two key US allies.
State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said the United States had already spoken with each country individually about their relations.
He anticipated Netanyahu to give Obama "a report on the early stages of the Israeli investigation into the flotilla tragedy" and that the two leaders would discuss "recent progress" on the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu has said he will stress the need to switch from US-mediated indirect negotiations to face-to-face talks with the Palestinians.
"A main part of my conversations with President Obama in Washington next week will be focused on how to start direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians right away," the prime minister said.
The Palestinians froze direct negotiations in December 2008 when Israel launched a deadly offensive against Gaza to halt rocket attacks. Since May, the two sides have been negotiating through US special envoy George Mitchell.
When the US and Israeli leaders last met, in March, Netanyahu was reportedly chastised by his host and denied the privileges customarily granted to foreign leaders, even the ritual handshake photo.
This time around, the temperature in the White House is likely to be warmer.
The premier is expected to be given all the trappings traditionally associated with a visiting foreign leader, including Oval Office talks, a question and answer session, a photo op with reporters and a White House lunch.
"What`s most important for the United States is appearances," said Barry Rubin, editor of The Middle East Review of International Affairs.
Obama`s Democratic Party is expected to face a tough battle in November`s mid-term elections and could lose its Congressional majority.
A poll last month showed a fall in the number of Americans who trust Obama to handle a crisis, in the wake of the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Obama wants the Israeli leader to extend a West Bank settlement freeze due to expire in September, while right wingers in his ruling coalition fiercely oppose any further moratorium, notably Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Iran will also figure high on the agenda for Israel, which insists the Islamic republic is on the verge of developing nuclear weapons under the guise of a civil energy programme. Tehran denies the allegation.
Israel, which has the Middle East`s sole if undeclared nuclear arsenal, does not rule out using force against Iran.
But after the UN Security Council voted last month for broader military and financial sanctions on Iran and the US congress approved its own measures against trade with Tehran, Rubin sees little more that Obama can do for now.
"I`m not sure what else there would be. Remember that (Netanyahu) has been waiting a year and a half for what`s being done now," he said, referring to the period since Obama took office.
BDST: 8:50 HRS, July 4, 2010
